Salaries of all public servants should be harmonised to reduce the country’s wage bill and ensure equality, two senators have said.

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Senators Joy Gwendo and Naisula Lesuuda have called on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to rationalise the political, elective office holders and civil servants salaries.

The senators said there have been rampant complaints of disparities of salaries between civil servants and other government employees. They added that harmonisation and rationalisation of salaries of all public servants will create equality.

“We are calling the commission to look at the salaries of government workers and make them commensurate with their services,” Lesuuda said.

She said the country must now engage in a serious debate of rationalising salaries of public servants to ensure the country’s wage bill is manageable.

Lesuuda said salaries of the government workers should be rationalised depending on their services from top to bottom so that all of them can be able to cope with the rising cost of living.

She said radical surgery will help citizens to tackle their living problems owing to the rising cost of living occasioned by the falling value of Kenya shilling.

“We want SRC chairperson Sarah Serem to engage all stakeholders to expedite salary harmonisation," Lesuuda said.

She said the issue of teachers’ strike is a national problem that both the opposition and the government side must agree to get an amicable solution.

Gwendo also appealed to teachers to give dialogue a chance and return back to classes to ensure the education system is not hampered with. She said the teachers deserve a pay increment but that should be done after thorough consultations to ensure the country does not borrow money or increase levies on the public.

But ODM nominated Senator Daisy Kanainza said the government has no option but to pay teachers.

“If the government which is the custodian of the Constitution cannot obey the court order then why should teachers obey the same?” Kanainza asked.

She asked the government and the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) to avoid applying double standards and also obey court orders as they expect teachers to do the same.

Kisumu Diocese Arc-Bishop Zacchaeus Okoth supported dialogue between the government and teachers to end the standoff.

They were speaking on Saturday in Kisumu East during the burial of Gwendo’s grandmother Mama Gaudensia Adera Nyobala.